1/8/08

Valentine Bead Danglies

Here's my Valentine danglies! I like to wear these dangle-type earrings, not everyone does - so this is for those of you who DO like them!

I happened to drive by a bead shop on my way home from somewhere yesterday and although there wasn't a whole lot to choose from, I found these cute Oriental heart beads. They're made from cinnabar ,which I've learned is a common material used in a lot of Oriental carving work. Anyway - I liked the beads so I grabbed a few.

So here's how I made my little earrings:

Like I said before, stack your beads on a headpin any way you like. Then cut the headpin with your wire cutters leaving enough at the top to curl over and make a little loop.

Then attach your earring to your loop and finish off by tightening your loop and securing the earring piece.

If you're nervous about making a necklace with all of the tools, clamps, and hardware - just make a little charm and get a simple necklace at the store to hang it on.

To make a charm, use a little "O" ring instead of an earring piece.

Here are some different Valentine-type samples I came up with.

This honestly takes 2 minutes!!!

(I apologize for the ugly photo display but I'm too lazy right now to spend any more time on this!)

Call me nerdy, but these are some sets that I made about a year ago and for playful, casual occasions, I'll wear them. (I'm missing an earring as you can see on the bottom left...and I think my daughter lost my CUTE bracelet that goes with the necklace set there.)

The bracelets and the necklace are made with that stretchy cording. Nothing fancy - just string them on and tie them tight without breaking the cording. I wouldn't use those fancy, expensive beads this way - just cheap-o beads that you don't care about in the event your bracelet or necklace gets ripped off of your body by a curious, aggressive 2-year-old, and beads shower the floor. (I KNOW this...)

And now for the packaging! A gift is SO much more appealing and fun when there's cute packaging, so here's what I did for this jewelry:

Punch holes in the card - two tiny ones for the earrings and two notches at the top for a necklace or bracelet. Obviously I didn't measure - so if you care enough to make everything aligned, go ahead and measure your hole distances.A little trick I like to do before I tie my ribbon on anything like this is to wrap the plastic with a clear rubber band - ponytail holder thing. Now you can tie your ribbon without having to fight the plastic!

6 comments:

Those are all so cute, Abby! I honestly don't know how you have the time to just whip them out and then to document them so well with pictures AND blog them all so quickly! I've got a bunch of beads in my online basket at Oriental Trading, but I can't get the guts to order them since I've never beaded before. You make it look easy enough, but I'm afraid I'd just buy them and be too intimidated to try! Keep posting ideas...maybe I'll get brave about one of them!

Wow these are so cute- I am usually a lurker- but wanted to let you know that I check your blog all the time looking for great crafty ideas- and I'm never disappointed! When I saw your cute jewelry I wanted to let you know about a little valenetine swap going on over on my blog www.erinkoch.blogspot.comWe would love to have you come over and play!

Hey, thanks everyone! Thanks for the nice words! It means a lot since my life is full of kids, diapers, messes, laundry, and did I mention messes?

And for Alli - GO FOR IT, BABY! Life is about learning new things, right? If you won't break the bank, order the beads. If you don't like any of your bead creations, so what! You clip off the beads and keep them for more practice!

Erin - I love your site! I'd love to do whatever Valentiney swappy thing you have going on! I'll jump over there when I get a minute later this evening to find out the details. Thanks for the invite!

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A Little About Me...

Living in Sunny Arizona, I stay at home, take care of kids, and try to stay sane. I love chocolate, good movies, being active, and of course, my family. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I work in the Primary as the Primary Prez.